Most experimental claims of Majorana bound states, unusual quasiparticles that may become the cornerstone of topological quantum computing, rest on the observation of a persistent zero bias peak (ZBP) in tunneling spectra. In semiconductor–superconductor heterostructures, this feature may also be caused by the topologically trivial Andreev bound states. Valentini et al. provide comprehensive evidence that the ZBPs observed in their experiments with semiconductor nanowires fully coated with a superconducting shell are indeed of this topologically trivial origin, in contrast to the interpretation of similar earlier experiments. The researchers identify the length of the tunnel junction in their devices as a crucial experimental parameter. Science, abf1513, this issue p. 82 Tunneling into devices made of InAs nanowires fully wrapped with superconducting Al reveals the character of subgap states. A semiconducting nanowire fully wrapped by a superconducting shell has been proposed as a platform for obtaining Majorana modes at small magnetic fields. In this study, we demonstrate that the appearance of subgap states in such structures is actually governed by the junction region in tunneling spectroscopy measurements and not the full-shell nanowire itself. Short tunneling regions never show subgap states, whereas longer junctions always do. This can be understood in terms of quantum dots forming in the junction and hosting Andreev levels in the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov regime. The intricate magnetic field dependence of the Andreev levels, through both the Zeeman and Little-Parks effects, may result in robust zero-bias peaks—features that could be easily misinterpreted as originating from Majorana zero modes but are unrelated to topological superconductivity.